Immigration Project - Page Text Content

2: Ireland's Potato Blight of 1845 is often seen as the beginning of a huge wave of Irish immigration to the United States. | The Blight decimated potato crops and created a devastating famine.

3: Starvation became rampant in Ireland and within five years, a million Irish were dead and half a million had come to America to start a new life. However, living conditions in Ireland were dismal long before the Potato Blight of 1845 and resulting famine, and large numbers of Irish came to America as early as the 1820s. The Irish made up over one third of all immigrants to the United States between 1820 and 1860. By the 1840s, the Irish had accounted for nearly half of all immigrants to the United States.

4: The Irish that immigrated to America as a result of the Famine were the most impoverished the United States have ever seen. | Some of the poorest lived in the five points district of lover Manhattan in New York City which the English novelist Charles Dickens described as "reeking everywhere with dirt and filth," with "lanes and all alleys paved with mud knee deep."

5: The poorest Irish immigrants lived in cellars, basements and one-room apartments that didn't have natural light or ventilation and often flooded with sewage. As a result, they experienced high incidences of cholera, typhus and pneumonia, as well as mental illness and alcohol abuse. Irish immigrant accounted for a high number of admissions to poor houses and public hospitals, as well as frequent arrests and imprisonment, mainly for disorderly conduct.

6: The Irish immigrants worked for very low wages, lacked skills and were often used as strike-break labor. They took the dangerous and menial jobs that other workers shunned. Many worked in coal minds or built railroads and canals. Over time, many Irish immigrants were able to advance in both occupation and social standing thanks to politically appointed positions such as policeman, firemen and teachers.

7: Italian Immigration

8: In fact, more Italians had immigrated to America more than any other Eurpian immigrants. | During the mass emigration from Italy between 1876 and 1976, the United States was the largest single recipient of Italian immigrants in the world, with over four and a half Italian immigrants arriving in America.

9: Most of the Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy , leaving to escape the economic hardship, natural disasters, high taxes and scarcity of resources in their homeland. Once they passed through Ellis Island, many Italian immigrants settled right in New York City, bringing with them their culture and beliefs. The new American-Italians clustered into groups that corresponded to their place of origin. For example, people from different parts of Sicily settled on different streets, and the Neapolitans settled on even different streets or neighborhoods. But no matter where they settled, living conditions tended to be crowded and dirty.

10: They were likely to take construction jobs and were contracted out by professional labor brokers known as padrones. Italian immigrants dug tunnels, built bridges and roads, laid railroad tracks and helped build the first skyscrapers. By 1890, nearly 90% or New York City’s public works employees were Italian immigrants. Many Italian immigrants never intended to make America their permanent home – they migrated to the United States to find work, and either sent money home or tried to save enough money to have a better life in their homeland. Some traveled to America in early spring and worked until late fall, returning then to the warmth of their southern European homes for the winter. It’s estimated that 20 to 30 percent of Italian immigrants returned to Italy permanently. Historians use the term “birds of passage” to describe these types of immigrants.

11: Polish Immigrants

12: Many Polish immigrants came to America for economic, political and religious reasons. The majority came from the South and Southeastern parts of Poland, which at the time, were very poor and overpopulated areas. Many immigrants were illiterate and unskilled laborers, even in their own country. The massive immigration started when a group of farmers left the country in the hopes of finding better economic opportunity. Many of them had lost their land and weren’t able to feed their families, which was a direct conflict of the Polish belief that if you owned land it showed stability, but without it you were in ruin. This belief, combined with political and religious conditions in Poland, was one of the reasons for the large Polish immigration to the United States.

13: A large number of Polish immigrants came to the United States solely to make money. These people were called “za chlebem” or “for bread” immigrants. It was thought that once they made some money, they would return to Poland and be prosperous. Still other Polish immigrants sold everything to travel to America and start a new life, and once in America, encourage their relatives to make the same trip. Most Polish immigrants were Roman Catholics and they tended to stick together, forming large groups with other Polish immigrants. They continued with their Roman Catholic religion, and set up huge churches that became the centers of their communities.

14: In Polish immigrant families, everyone in the household worked, including mothers and children. Men without skills worked in industrial facilities, did menial tasks and dirty jobs, while the women ran the households, took in borders and did laundry for others. But most Polish immigrants did not seem to mind, since they had been unemployed for years in their homeland.

15: Pros of Immigration | Cultural Exchange: Immigration leads to exchange of cultural values. It results in an exchange of knowledge and expertise between two nations. It serves as an opportunity to interact with people of other countries. It gives a platform for people from diverse backgrounds to come together and share their views.

16: New Avenues in Education and Career: Immigration brings in new opportunities for people of different countries. It exposes people of a nation to the atmosphere of another country that may be very different from one's motherland. It results in exchange and sharing of knowledge between nations. This opens doors to many new fields of education and career opportunities.

17: Economic Growth: Immigration results in an open global market. It gives a global perspective to the social and economic growth of society, thus widening the scope for development. With new opportunities in career and education, comes economic growth. Supporters of immigration believe that it has the potential of bringing about global prosperity.

18: Distribution of Population: In some cases, immigration may result in a fairer distribution of population. Migration of people from an overpopulated country to a scarcely populated one balances population density. Some countries face a dearth of resources due to their rising population, while others are blessed with ample resources but have a very thin population. Migration from a thickly populated nation to a thinly populated one can prove to be a blessing for both countries.

19: Cons of Immigration | Population Imbalance: Crowding, that is, increase in the population density in certain regions, is one of the basic disadvantages of immigration. Migration of people from one country to another leads to crowding in one nation as opposed to deserting of another. It implies an excessive use of the resources of one nation that may lead to imbalance of natural resources.

20: Transfer of Diseases: Immigrants may bring with them, diseases that prevailed in their country. Disease-causing agents may transfer from one country to another through immigrants, thus leading to spread of diseases. To reduce the risk of transfer of diseases, many countries have started carrying out screening of immigrants on their arrival in the country. Reportedly, AIDS was transferred to the United States in 1969 through one infected immigrant from Haiti.

21: Unfair Distribution of National Wealth: Those opposing immigration argue that the jobs available in the country and the nation's wealth are its property and that allowing immigration implies the distribution of this property among the non-natives. Immigration implies the distribution of a nation's wealth to those who do not have a right on it.

22: Financial Burden: The costs incurred in the provision of resources such as education and health facilities to the immigrants are a burden on the nation that hosts immigrants in large numbers. Some say that the economic growth brought about by immigration is nullified by the costs that the nation's government has to bear in providing the immigrants with the resources.

23: Immigration Then And Now | The Titanic steamed towards America with its third-class hold full of people immigrating to America. These people were from different countries and each was leaving behind everything and everyone he knew to start a new and better life. Many were coming only with what they could carry. They shared a common dream and that dream was to see the Statue of Liberty waiting to greet them as they entered the New York harbor. In those days, nearly all immigrants came in by ship and were processed at Ellis Island. A careful list was kept of each person. The family name, how many in the family, their health, and where they planned to go to settle, was all recorded and even today, people can check those records to find the names of family members who passed through the doors at Ellis Island.

24: Financial Burden: The costs incurred in the provision of resources such as education and health facilities to the immigrants are a burden on the nation that hosts immigrants in large numbers. Some say that the economic growth brought about by immigration is nullified by the costs that the nation's government has to bear in providing the immigrants with the resources.

25: Immigration Then And Now | The Titanic steamed towards America with its third-class hold full of people immigrating to America. These people were from different countries and each was leaving behind everything and everyone he knew to start a new and better life. Many were coming only with what they could carry. They shared a common dream and that dream was to see the Statue of Liberty waiting to greet them as they entered the New York harbor. In those days, nearly all immigrants came in by ship and were processed at Ellis Island. A careful list was kept of each person. The family name, how many in the family, their health, and where they planned to go to settle, was all recorded and even today, people can check those records to find the names of family members who passed through the doors at Ellis Island.

26: Today, there are approximately 12 million people in America that should not be here. We have no records of who they are, how long they have been here, or even why they are here. We do not know if they are rapists, murderers, drug runners, or child molesters. We don't know if they are ill or carry contagious diseases. Many women come here ready to give birth so they will have an "anchor baby." This baby, if born in America, is automatically an American citizen and thus, cannot be forced to leave. This baby is their get-into-America-free card.